Festive Fitness: Can you lose a Christmas turkey in 12 weeks?

Thinking about the festive season may seem like the furthest thing from your mind right now but with less than 100 days to go until Christmas, it’s really not far away.

The key to a successful Christmas is planning; there are presents to buy, family members to visit, and of course, the quest to find (and fit into) the perfect festive party outfit. Many people abandon their fitness regime during the festive season because they feel that they will just put more weight on, but did you know that the average turkey weighs around a stone? While a Christmas pudding weighs around 1 lb!

Instead of gaining the equivalent of a Christmas dinner in weight, Fitness First Clubs want to support people all over the UK to get into great shape for the holiday season. We are encouraging you to give your diets a full audit and think about what changes you can make before the festive fun begins.

As part of our latest campaign, we are helping 12 bloggers to meet their festive fitness goals. Each participant has filled in a week-long food and exercise diary for a personal trainer at Fitness First Clubs to audit. They have assessed all of their information, including what food and drink they eat, the times of day food/drink is consumed and the amount of exercise they do. The personal trainers analysed the data and they provided each blogger with feedback and advice on what changes they might want to make. While some of the alterations may seem fairly small, people often need to hear some fresh advice before they can really transform their unhealthy habits.

WHAT WERE THE MOST COMMON DIET PITFALLS?

Even though our bloggers all lead completely different lives, we noticed some common unhealthy habits that will have a significant impact on their individual weight gain.

• Skipping breakfast - Our personal trainers were surprised at the number of people that regularly skipped breakfast. Consuming a healthy breakfast fires up your metabolism and provides you with energy throughout the morning. Those who skip breakfast may feel hungrier throughout the day, which could cause them to consume greater amounts of fatty food and carbohydrates.
• Portion size - Many of the foods that our bloggers consumed weren’t inherently unhealthy, but the portion sizes were too large. For example, the fat content in avocado or feta cheese is high, which means only a small amount should be consumed per meal, but many bloggers were including large quantities or combining them together. If fat and calories are still over the recommended amount, you will gain weight regardless of where it came from.
• Lack of exercise - We all know that exercising burns calories, but the majority of diaries highlighted a severe lack of activity. The more exercise you do, the better the chances are that you will achieve your festive fitness dream.

FESTIVE FITNESS CAMPAIGN

We have officially launched the Festive Fitness campaign, where 12 lovely bloggers will dedicate the next 12 weeks to getting into shape. The challenge will run from 28th September until 21st December, giving participants plenty of time to hit their weight loss targets.

Participants will be pitched against each other, and we will post a fortnightly update on this blog - to help them stay accountable - with a league table that will only take the weight loss percentage into consideration. The individual at the top of the leader board will receive a prize and the winner of the entire challenge will be awarded a Christmas makeover at the end of the 12 weeks.

Keep checking back to this blog to discover how the bloggers are doing on their fitness journeys, and to find out who is winning the challenge. Start your own fitness journey today by joining a Fitness First Club, you can search for your local club here.